Ants Trapped in a Soviet Nuclear Bunker Survived for Years (2019)

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

MaysonL

130 points

27 comments

sciencealert.comResearchstory

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EntomologyEcologyBunker Ecology

Key topics

Entomology

Ecology

Bunker Ecology

Ants trapped in a Soviet nuclear bunker were initially thought to have survived for years, but were actually replenished by new ants falling from above, and were eventually given a path back to their colony.

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Discussion (27 comments)

Showing 27 comments

russdill

3 months ago

5 replies

No, they didn't survive for years. They died after a short time, but their ranks were continually replenished by fresh ants falling from a colony above.

ge96

3 months ago

1 reply

Kill 1 ant, 2 more shall rise to take its place

Rendello

3 months ago

Or fall.

jmdeon

3 months ago

1 reply

I guess the interesting thing is they built and maintained a nest which looked mostly like a colony. The colony's food source being the fresh falling ants you mentioned.

> "In total darkness, they have constructed an earthen mound, which they have maintained all-year-round by moulding it and keeping the nest entrances open," researchers wrote in a study in 2016, noting these ants are "a far cry from a fully functional colony".

johndhi

3 months ago

1 reply

With no queen how could they reproduce down there after the originals died of old age though?

Rendello

3 months ago

1 reply

From the article:

> They were not reproducing, though. Instead, the population was being replenished through sheer accident.

IAmBroom

3 months ago

1 reply

So you're saying the article itself has information about what the article contains?

Fascinating.

Rendello

3 months ago

I try not to get my heart rate up.

xattt

3 months ago

1 reply

Thank you. I was trying to figure out how entropy was maintained after food was metabolized.

juttern

3 months ago

1 reply

What...?

xattt

3 months ago

The article phrased the situation as generations of ants feeding on each other over many years. At some point, the energy value of the food drops because it’s consumed.

nemo

3 months ago

The ants who fell in died after a while, but the story is really about how they survived to form a colony close to a million through survival by cannibalism.

trhway

3 months ago

ants of Theseus

httpsoverdns

3 months ago

1 reply

So very happy that the story ended with them giving the trapped ants a path back to their colony

spiderxxxx

3 months ago

2 replies

No, they gave the cannibal ants a link to a new food source. Imagine you're living in your house, your neighborhood, and there's this large pit in the center, where the cannibals live. They're 30ft down so they can't get out, so you don't have to worry. Then someone puts a ladder down to them. Start of a horror movie if you ask me.

neom

3 months ago

This comment is full of interesting questions! Would they return to being normal ants due to the environment shift? If they are now truly just "cannibal ants" and not regular ants acting in an opportunistic cannibal manner, would they even bother going to the colony, or would they just kinda zombie around eating other ants? And do these new ant types need to function together in this new style?

ekaryotic

3 months ago

actually there was a chinese serial killer that used a technique like this. He had a septic tank and threw his victims in along with the dead bodies of his previous victims and would only let them out if they brought more victims from a train station. article is partially paywalled but is the case in question. https://archive.is/QxBDr https://medium.com/crimes-by-mr-o/this-teacher-was-thrown-in...

carlosjobim

3 months ago

1 reply

Literal hell for ants, until they were saved by a supreme being.

cm2012

3 months ago

"Boy am I glad not have consciousness right now" the ant said, as the nearby ants start tearing at him, in the cold pitch black of a nuclear bunker.

dudeinjapan

3 months ago

1 reply

Why didn't they just climb out the ventilation shaft they fell in? Can’t they walk on the ceiling?

waltbosz

3 months ago

From the research paper: https://jhr.pensoft.net/article/38972/element/2/11//

> The upper part of the ant trail in Fig. 1; the ants (on the left) were unable to move along the ceiling and thus could not reach the outlet of the ventilation pipe. Photo taken on 18.09.2016 (Wojciech Stephan).

balamatom

3 months ago

Vyell, fak.

Imagine visiting the basement at Omelas and this happens.

Poor ants.

rbanffy

3 months ago

This is the kind of story older ants tell young ones about what happens when you stray into dark and forbidden tunnels.

withants

3 months ago

(2019) with ants

waltbosz

3 months ago

> In 2016, researchers installed a wooden boardwalk (below) in the bunker, connecting the ventilation pipe to the ground. Within four months, nearly all the trapped ants had deserted the bunker floor.

It sort of feels like the ruined a good experiment.

staplung

3 months ago

"Difficult to tell from this vantage point if they will consume the captive Earth-men or merely enslave them...one thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here! And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. Like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar-caves."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4jWAwUb63c

deafpolygon

3 months ago

This plotline is reminiscent of the horror plot in Pandorum, but it’s set in the world of ants.

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ID: 45465091Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 6:27:41 PM

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